burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

Friday

Prof.B. working from home is both good and bad.

I went to the gym after work.  Did a half-hour on the elliptical (interval program), pedaled backwards for second half.  (mile 1 - 11:17, mile 2 - 22:52)  Then I did a half hour on the rowing machine.

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Mike&Meredith hosted a Game Night.  I only ever seem to be able to attend the ones they host :)

Michelle's been talking about how she read Anton LaVey's The Satanic Bible, and I'm starting to want to read it 'cause she talks about how LaVey is such a good writer.
Michelle recommended Elaine Pagels' The Origin of Satan to Sue.  Anyone have thoughts?  I remember being unimpressed by Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, and I seem to recall that I've heard mixed things about Elaine Pagels.
She also explained the difference between a pentacle and a pentagram, which was news to me.

At one point during the night, Michelle said approvingly, "I'm getting my back rubbed by a cute girl."  (I was sitting behind her on a piano bench.)  She hadn't heard from her boyfriend since Tuesday and next time she talks to him she's gonna tell him: "There are plenty of people happy to take me off your hands, if calling me once a week is too back-breaking for you" and totally namedrop me :)

Michelle was telling me about this online survey that had as one of its questions: "Who would you HIGH-FIVE right now?"
She said she cracked up laughing, and thought of me.

At one point she said she (we?) needed to get psyched up... that the jazz music in the other room just wasn't doing it for her.  I knew what was coming, but when she busted out with, "Shot through the heart!" I  still nearly died laughing.  [ref.]

At one point, Sue asked, "Were you two separated at birth?"
I said normally Michelle prompts a lot of "This is my tolerant face" from me, but that we happened to be focusing on the stuff we mutually geek out about.

Michelle says next time we marathon HIMYM we're inviting Sue and Catherine.  I pointed out we're most of the way through S1; she said we'll start over, she's happy to rewatch.

We played Apples to Apples.
I got intense (Black Holes - Mike) and corrupt (My Love Life - Michelle).
The last hand we played before people had to start getting home (it was like midnight) was "spunky" and the final choices were "Rock & Roll" or "Girlfriends" -- my card and Trelawney's, respectively.  Trelawney enlisted peer pressure, and not actually wanting to be spunky, I was ok with forfeiting to her.

Saturday

I was gonna go to the gym but ended up sleeping for an eternity.  ::confused::

collegecate and I went to see Titus Andronicus, with dinner at Tamarind Bay beforehand, and dessert at Finale afterward.

I had Nezami Handi ("Mix Vegetables with spinach in almond sauce.")  It very much wasn't what I was expecting, but I liked it, and though I was surprised at the apparent small amount of food, I was full at the end.

Anyway, Titus Andronicus.  That was a very disturbing play.
Back when we watched The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover and Emma couldn't stomach it, I said, "But you love Titus," never having seen or read the play myself.  Now that I've seen it, I stand by that statement more strongly.
Also: there was a moment wherein a character gagged another by stuffing a piece of paper in his mouth.

Yeah, that a dessert place has a buy-one-get-one-free promotion with a production of Titus Andronicus is a bit disturbing :)  I'd actually never been to finale before.  I ordered a Manjari Mousse.  Not to die for, but that was okay.

The company that did Titus Andronicus... their 2007-2008 season is: Macbeth, Henry V, The Tempest, King John; and the coda to the 2006-2007 season is Love's Labour's Lost.
I am undecided.

Cate lives near Coolidge Corner.  Good to know for future midnight showings.  [midnight showings permalink]  I wouldn't have gone to the prom thing anyway -- though because '"Everything's funnier when seminarians do it," I will be at ANTS next Friday :)

Sunday

I dreamt that I happened to visit the library and I saw Terry in the old children's room with a young daughter.  Awake, I have decided this was Tallessyn's daughters, whom I see at Cambridge Welcoming every Sunday (especially since my dream self seemed to think Terry had two daughters) but it was very bizarre since that is not how he normally shows up in my dreams.

Last night I was telling Cate that I was considering taking an Intro to Islam course at the extension school next year.  However, trying to come up with a bibliography and thesis for my 15-page research paper for my Medieval Church class is making me wanna drop out of school.  I also dislike that I've been in a poor mood all day because of it.

What Graduation Weekend stories did i forget?

In one of the classes my dad was subbing for, some kids were talking about who's gay at NHS [the high school i went to and which he substitute teaches at now] and being so matter-of-fact about it -- "He's bi," "Her girlfriend's from Sharon," etc.  This made me happy.

At graduation rehearsal they told us not to open booze at the graduation ceremony out of respect for alcoholics -- the best argument i've heard yet for that policy.

At Commencement, the Senior Class gift to the college was a rock, symbolic of a larger rock which would be erected for students and orgs to paint on.  I thought of Hollins :)

P.S. Dominique took pictures of the comp-sci majors graduating, and jessikins4774 has pictures from Ivy Day and Commencement, if you want a feel for what it all looked like.  And Cate has an account of the Baccalaureate i skipped out on.

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During Senior Week, one thing i did was to read some of the other fairy tale retellings in the collections i'd gotten out to do research for my seminar paper.  I never did get around to posting the highlights:

Dorothy Lee Richardson's "Modern Grimm" from Disenchantments (ed. Wolfgang Mieder) is really interesting.

Tanith Lee's "Snow-Drop" (from Snow White, Blood Red) is omg hot and chilling.

From Black Thorn, White Rose:
"Words Like Pale Stones" by Nancy Kress - some really interesting thoughts on words and beauty and etc.
"Stronger Than Time" by Patricia C. Wrede - interesting thoughts on how fairy tales and magic spells work

I really like Sisters in Fantasy 2.
"Shahrezad" by Ellen Guon and "Dumping Ra" by Sharan Newman both use tropes i've seen before, but they're still done well here.
"Angel of the City" by Susan Shwartz is reminiscent of various angels i've seen in other stories, but is very well done.  I have such a weakness for angels who are oh so human.
"Why Is This Night Different" by Janni Lee Simner is a wonderfully interesting and powerful story that hits a lot of my kinks (not sexual ones, thematic ones).

Oh, and Anthony Schmitz's Darkest Desire: The Wolf's Own Tale includes a really interesting on the Grimms and their tale collection.


And because i always forget to look them up when i'm home, the creepy-as-fuck tales i grew up on are: The Fairy Tale Book a deluxe golden book illustrated by Adrienne Segur ("Donkey-Skin," Madame d'Aulnoy's "The White Deer" and "The Royal Ram" -- also includes stuff like "Urashima and the Turtle" and Madame d'Aulnoy's "Queen Cat"), and The Unbroken Web by Richard Adams ("The Giant Eel," "The Moddey Dhoo," "The Robin").

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What else have i been doing?

My grandma approves of my break from academia, which is a relief since she was the one person i was really worried about telling.  The plans i do have seem to not really register.  Her short-term memory is so going, and she definitely doesn't tend to retain things that don't fit with what she's expecting, so i rather suspect we'll be telling her about bartender training and massage school to blank looks for weeks.

I finally watched Sliding Doors.  I approve.  For the most part anyway.

. . . There are two schools of thought about the resilience of time.  The first is that time is highly volatile, with every small event altering the possible outcome of the earth's future.  The other view is that time is rigid, and no matter how hard you try, it will always spring back toward a determined present.  Myself, I do not worry about such trivialities.  I simply sell ties to anyone who wants to buy one . . .
     Tie seller in Victoria, June 1983
-from The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

One of the things that bugged me about the movie also came up in Grey's Anatomy (which i saw for the first time tonight).  Who today has unprotected heterosexual sex -- i mean, have you heard of pregnancy?  And a slew of doctors?!  [Also, the ease with which Alex homo-bantered made me heart him like whoa, but to say "unprotected sex" and not mention anything about non-penis sex?  I object.]

I had orientation for massage school Thursday night.  The assorted walks involved are not a big deal.  Saw so many sailors.  Apparently the JFK has been in port.

My grandma took me to Salem years ago, and i have vague memories of North Station as something akin to Back Bay station.  Now, however, it is omgFleetCenterliekwhoa!  I am displeased.

Walking to Palmer i passed a sign saying, "Welcome To The Open Door United Church of Christ" [salemmission.org].  The adjacent sign (they seemed to share a building -- which looked to me like a Catholic church building) was for St. Clare of Assisi - Catholic Church in America, "An Association of Catholic Churches NOT In Communion With The Roman Catholic Church" [catholicchurchinamerica.org].
Sometime last semester, Ruhi was asking Emily about this thing she had heard of, Catholic Church of America, not affiliated with Rome, and she was wondering if Emily knew anything about it.

The people at Palmer are all effusive and everything, and definitely knowledgeable, but the hippie-dippie-ness puts me on edge.  During the orientation, the instructors all talked about the courses they taught, and they talked about the National Certification Exam, and the woman who heads the school talked about how it's a computerized test, created by people who don't necessarily know anything about massage but know a lot about testing, and how it's multiple choice, and she said something about how you have to live in your brain for a few hours (while you're taking the exam) and she said that can be difficult for massage therapists [which does make sense insomuch as massage work is very body-oriented and to some degree intuitive and not an explicitly intellectual work], saying she hardly ever lives in her brain, and i thought, "But i always live in my brain."  I'm really into physical contact -- hugs, cuddling, that kind of thing -- but i so very much live inside my head, working with words rather than bodies.  And this whole energy focus makes me wonder if i'm at the right place at all.  I picked it because it was the only one i could commute to, and i figure it's better to have the knowledge and choose to not use it than to not have that option.  And i am such a whore for knowledge, as evidenced when the instructors were talking about their courses and my mental list of Want to Take was growing.

A number of the women (instructors) had bleached blond hair, and makeup, and one had a dark tan that to me yelled tanning salon.  This seemed out of kilter and bothered me far more than all the talk about working with your clients' energy etc.

And omg the EarthLite catalog.  You can purchase massage tables with names like Pegasus and Everest, and there are nature pictures taking up half of each page.  It's intense.  Tempts me to set up my scanner.

At dinner on Friday, i learned that my mom knew one of the instructors before, because she did social work stuff.  Said instructor was one of the people i liked best from the brief introductions we got.  And she does a 4-hour "Caring for Victims of Abuse" workshop [as part of Anatomy&Physiology III lecture series] which i want to manage to attend if not this session then sometime.

That Friday we bought alcohol, my choice.  I ended up deciding on Blue Moon Riesling and admitted to being sucked in by the label (though i read the label for every Riesling in the store and had reasons besides just the label for choosing what i did).  I said i was a victim of their marketing.  We came outside to a beautiful sunset and i said i was a victim of God's marketing :)  The Riesling, for the record, is quite good, though the guy in the store was right that American Riesling is drier than German Riesling.

I applied for a slew of administrative assistant type jobs this weekend (and a variety of other jobs, as i have no shame -- though i still won't work for MassPIRG).  Looking at the listings, i don't want the ones that want me to manage teams or whatever; i want brainless work.  I keep thinking of Stacey's apologies for not giving me challenging work and my insistence that really this was what i wanted, that i used my brain enough.  And also of this year's commencement speaker talking about a waitress in her area who loves her job in large part because it gives her the freedom to do so much else with her life.
I did a cognitive whosiewhatsie and ow my brain.  The recognizing faces portion reminded me of my self-defense class.

offbalance has the most eclectic "5 books that mean a lot to me" i've seen for that meme yet.  (She's also the second person to tag me to do that meme.  And i will do it.  That question is just like the hardest thing evar.)

Post-"Chosen": Girl Pitches Perfect Little League Game and ladyvorkosigan wrote The BSC, Vampire Slayers which i think i'm afraid to read.

twinkledru says, I am really, really tempted to write a "Five Jedi Yoda Never Trained" story. With one of the five being River.

Whole lotta links about writing teh sex in the most recent metafandom.  Basically summed up by: generalizations are bad, and stating your opinions in an inflammatory manner riles people up.  I do like this bit, though.  ( cut for some explicitness ) Oh, and jadelennox quotes a Newbery winner: "reality is no excuse for fiction".


In the interest of getting rid of stuff:
--The Blending by Sharon Green (6 book series, quite good, i just don't expect to reread them anytime soon)
-- the first four Earth's Children (The Clan of the Cave Bear etc.) books in paperback (i really like the first book and keep intending to read the rest, but i'm thinking it's not gonna happen anytime soon)
Any interested parties?

Hey, Ashley, it's not Showgirls, but...

And Emma, clearly this is when you should come visit me :)

"I have this big tattoo on my back. It means 'love and peace in the world' but mostly it just means 'drunk and 18'." -Vanessa Marcil (number 20-something on the Maxim Hot 100 - courtesy of VH1)
Angelina Jolie is only #7?


And okay, i think i'm done now.